20thirteen

Before you read any farther (or is it further? English majors, help me out here...) you should head over to read Jami Nato's post about New Years and goals and what not. Because she says exactly what we're all thinking and is hilarious. And honestly, it's a great post. Read this. Now.

I always enjoy sitting down and setting goals for myself for the coming year, mostly because there's nothing else to do right now, since Christmas is over and it's still cold outside and such. (hahahaha. that was a good joke.) I don't "get" resolving to do less of this or that; but I do like the idea of shifting focus back to where it belongs and setting goals for myself to work towards. I think this in itself results in doing less of the unfavorable activities and more of the good ones. What are your goals for the coming year? 

Here's a story before I lay my goals out for you. I know you're so so interested in hearing them, but seriously, there's an entire thought process that went into this. I was running on the treadmill Friday morning, in a total 6inthemorningnewsweetgymnewtreadmilloldtunesontheMP3player euphoria when a song came on my old Walkman Bean. 

got in 2005, still running strong...unlike my 4 year old other music player, which shall remain nameless

(anyone else ever have one of those?) I used to have AMAZING taste in music, I must say. Lately I pick one song and play it repeatedly until I can hear it even in silence. So...there's this part in Switchfoot's song, "Gone," that says 

"She said he said live like no tomorrow, 
Every moment that we borrow
Brings us one step closer to the edge 
Where's your treasure, where's your hope
If you get the world and lose your soul."

And I thought to myself "Holy moosenuts!  It's so so true! Pin all the things!!!!!!!!" We all want to be squeaky clean, uber-organized,  fit and trim, happy fashionistas with soft, shiny, perfectly-highlighted hair floating along day to day in a constant state of namaste and using our spare time to create our own little trendy design photos of our pets and children that we hang in super sophisticated patterns along an accent wall in our Pier 1 equivalent dining room. 

But what does any of that get us? New shiny stuff? Accolades and praise? Inner peace? If we conquer the world and lose ourselves in the process, we have lost. If we gather every treasure in the world and have no relationship with the Lord, and poor relationships with our family, we have nothing. I could be cleaner and more organized and use my time more wisely, and I could eat better and decorate my home to create a more comfortable mood. But it wouldn't really matter. I can also be a stronger wife, more helpful daughter and sister, a more involved aunt, a more frequent dog walker, a daily witness for Christ, and I could read my Bible more. These things are more important than eating habits, workout frequencies, and home organization.

Without further ado, here's my list:

(A repeat from last year) 1. detoxify my life. I worked on this from the outside in last year and have realized it only works by starting from inside my mind. Refusing negative thoughts, not dwelling on things that are worrisome or stressful (my job has consumed many a weekend with worry or migraines or exhaustion), and not being so darn competitive all the time. All of these activities are toxic and waste precious time and energy. P.S. God does not care how quickly I finish my degree, or if my body fat percentage is lower than someone else's. B. schedule time to spend with the Lord every day. Each and every single day. c. Show love, and quiet anger. "A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." ~Proverbs 15:1 and most importantly, 4. Be a light in the darkness. This was the focus of the Christmas Eve service at Church for All Nations and it is still echoing in my heart. The world has turned ugly. Horrifying events have us all living in suspicion and fear and blame. I refuse. It is better to a light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ~John 8:15

This munchkin can light up any room. His first word was "light,"
 which speaks volumes to his personality and his joyful spirit. 

Silent Night

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies for Christmas

Just in time for Christmas...complete with a tie-dye dove ;)

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

(that taste surprisingly like the REAL DEAL!)

Beat 2 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature (if you have lactose issues, I cannot verify if a substitute for the butter works...let me know if you try it!) together with 1 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat together until it's super duper fluffy. (several minutes) Then beat in 3 large eggs and 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp lemon zest or lemon juice. In a separate bowl, mix together 3 cups of this gluten free french bread and pizza crust mix. (Not the entire package) with 1 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum. Then slowly add the dry mixture to the wet until you get a typical sugar cookie dough consistency and chill the dough. Then roll out and use any gluten free flour to dust your working surface, cut your shapes and bake at 350 until the edges turn golden brown. Chilling the dough is super important. Your dough needs to be cold when you roll it out or you can feel it turn to mush. If you've cooked with gluten free stuff before, you know how easy it is to end up with glue instead of pasta, crust, or cookies. Also, a bag of xanthan gum is expensive. Invest the $11 once and you'll have enough xanthan gum to last you for quite awhile...don't let the price scare you into leaving it out. It's a key ingredient. 

I can has a Santa cookie?

For that shiny, easy to work with Royal Icing, beat 4 oz egg whites together with 1 tsp vanilla until frothy, 

frothy like this

Then add powdered sugar until you get a sticky, slightly runny frosting consistency. If you don't think to yourself "geesh, I've added a boat load of powdered sugar," you haven't added enough. Divide that up and add food coloring as desired. Use right away or store in an airtight container for about up to three days.

 Next time, I'll post the recipe for these cupcakes I made for my Dad's birthday.

I call them Charlie Browns

What's your favorite Christmas treat?

And then, we'll snuggle!

Can I start by saying I'm so glad to be back to regular again? I guess I can, because it's my blog. Anyways... since our trip to Nebraska, I haven't felt good. I didn't pay attention to what I was eating, I intentionally contaminated myself before the the trip, then ate whatever was available during the trip, and then felt so bad by the time we got back home I kept intentionally contaminating myself again and again because I "already felt bad...might as well eat whatever I want!!!!" Wrong. Do not think this way, people! Do not be like me!!!

I've discussed before how I don't have medical guarantee that I'm intolerant/allergic/diseased. But what I do have is knowledge I've gained from reading (gasp!) about nutrition and celiac disease...like, a lot. I also have my personal experiences and reactions I've experienced through my short life. SO....after three weeks of being itchy, splotchy, depressed, stressed, sleepy, sad, enraged, inflamed, and irritated...I still refuse to get scoped (you know sometimes they don't wash those things?) and came to the realization that we should not need a medical diagnosis as a reason to eat real food. I know what real food does in my body and I know what not so great food does in my body.....I don't need somebody to give me permission to avoid certain foods. I'm thankful I don't have serious medical issues, but the last three weeks have been such a frustrating experience. I finally went to the doctor to get some skin relief, steroid cream or prednisone or something, and this doc was seriously scrolling through her smart phone for answers. I give her credit for listening and taking an interest....but seriously? I can google my own answers on my own time from the comfort of my own home, and it is much more sanitary.

That was a bit of a tangent.           On to the point of this post......

1) thank you, Lord, for progress and relief. And for my loving husband who watched me scratch, listened to me whine, let me cry it out a few times, and helped me re-focus my energy towards healing. And for my family who listened and cared :)
2) It snowed!!!!! Finally!!!!

Lucy was stoked.

I was stoked too, now I'm in the Christmas mood!!!

I made these fancy Santa belly wrappers for a couple gifts for co-workers.  I like 'em!

And my loves settled in for their long winter's nap

while I enjoyed some home made cocoa in my Lions mug. PS- Go Lions!!!!!!

Last night I did the unthinkable.....

...I left the house in a dress! HUH?? Me??? yup.

but I just love my boots! and wanted to wear these new tights :)

And since I consumed more than my fair share of sugar this weekend, I can't wait to go put these to good use tomorrow!!!!

Yep, a heart rate monitor/GPS distance tracker and a new protein supplement that's free from corn, soy, wheat, milk, gluten, and sugar. My husband rocks :)

What are your goals for this week?

I've got big plans....

1) Get to the a.m. spin class twice (this is big. it requires leaving the house at 415...a.m.)

2) Paleo. All week. I did it 4 days last week, I know I can do it all week this week. (the VFW dinner Friday night - chicken cordon bleu, a roll, and au gratin potatoes- left me inhaling a chocolate bar for dinner...which I later found out contained malt. I should have just eaten the stinkin' chicken!)

3) Detox bath- get this crud OUT of my body!!!!!!

4) Get the Christmas cards sent!

5) Clean out the dryer vent. ( I have to be a domestic warrior sometime)

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

~Romans 12:12

November Road Trip to Nebraska, numero two

We took a road trip for Thanksgiving!

In addition to spending a wonderful holiday weekend with some of my amazing family, 

Mark and Lucy cuddled, as usual

Lucy slept

I enjoyed a few sunrises

I snagged a "Bird of Paradise" coffee at a small coffee shop/home decor store.
banana, coconut, and caramel in coffee.
Yu-umm! (p.s. hooray for small business Saturday)

We went roller skating!!!
Mark was obviously thrilled.

We also ended up at a sock hop accidentally.
My cousin was just as shocked as we were about her peers' behavior.
(I'll have to explain in another post)

We enjoyed a few sunsets.

and Lucy slept some more

.

ThankFULL

In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

~1 Thessalonians 5:18

We have so much to be thankful for today and every day! I'm thankful to have an amazing family, and the ability to make a short drive out to see those that don't live in ColoRADo. I'm also blessed to have a husband who will hop in the car with Lucy and I to make that drive. 

Which reminds me, I'm also thankful for Lucy.

I'm thankful for my job, and to have an extended vacation for Thanksgiving this year. I'm sad that we didn't spend thanksgiving with my Dad, but no matter where we ended up eating our turkey, I would be grateful because I know there are others who spent this day deployed to foreign countries, alone,  in hospitals, or under a bridge. I'm so blessed to have the family that I have, and don't know what I've done to deserve to be surrounded and related to these amazing people. 

It's no secret that he's my favorite..... I'm so thankful for my nephew. He sent us on the road with instructions to "watch out for deer, and let them all cross before you go." This little angel lights up my world and makes my heart melt. 

I'm thankful for friends, who take the time to let me know they care, and I hope I show enough of my gratitude and appreciation in return. 

Oh yeah, and I'm thankful for the ability to do GHD situps, even if they result in sore abdominals that leave me unable to stand up straight ~which means I was doing them wrong!~

Thank you, God, we are definitely drinking from the saucer.

I Know You Gonna' Dig This

Could today GET any more awesome??? Well...always, yes. But.....here's a refreshing change from the usual gripe fest that's going on somewhere else in the world right now. Some AMAZERING things happened today :)

1) I finally listened to my husband and checked out a certain gym on post.  ~Insert the hubs saying "I told you so!"~ this led to awesome thing #2) I planned, and completed a crossfit work out on my own schedule, for free, in my own little sliver of the world today. #dreamcometrue  So often I enter the gym with a plan, and have to change things because equipment is occupied or inaccessible. NOT TODAY, MY FRIENDS!!! Okay I'm done shouting now. I did 2 power cleans, 2 box jumps, 4 power cleans 4 box jumps, and so on for 10 minutes :) it rocked then I did other gym stuff
3) Tomorrow is my Friday.
4) My husband requested a healthy option for dinner tonight. I made it. He ate it. he had seconds. I'll be busy scraping my jaw off the floor for the rest of the evening. 
I purchased a speed rope for $5 dollars. Yes, you read that right. $5!!!!!!!!!! (this was #5, by the way)
aaaaannnnd #6. Jami Nato did her #letsgetpraisy linkup today. And it has been hilarious. You should check it out

and I hope amazing things happened in your world too!

Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole

You're welcome.
I hunted and hunted and hunted and crawled on my knees in the grocery store....all for this recipe.

Gluten Free (not dairy free) Green Bean Casserole

just in time for Thanksgiving :)

follow the recipe on the back of the French's french fried onions - the ones you can't eat because they're mostly flour- except, use half of a can of this

I found it on the back of the bottom shelf of the grocery store.
It was awesome.

instead of condensed cream of mushroom soup  (Add some salt, pepper, and other spices to your liking, mine came out pretty bland) then make your own french fried onions.
Slice an onion extra super thin.
Soak the slivers in milk (I used coconut milk because I haven't bought milk in months) for a few hours at least.

yep. Onions in milk. 

Take the milk-soaked onions and dredge them in gluten free flour.

Then fry them in a shallow skillet full of your cooking oil of choice. (I used olive oil)

Drain them out on a paper towel.

Magic. :)

store-bought glutenous poison in the white container. Mine in the baking dish. 

We had a GORGEOUS weekend here in ColoRADo.

look at that blue sky! (and not up my nostrils)

Lucy and I enjoyed a few walks this weekend.

Her after-walk ritual.

And a true basset in action!

If the globe seemed a bit off...it was probably because I have been leaving the house in skinny jeans.

I swore in seventh grade that I would NEVER wear tapered-leg pants again. That teasing (you know who you are!) was oh so painful. See, I missed the rise of the "flared" jeans....and I paid for it. Big time. Middle-schoolers are brutal. But I've come past that now...and here I am, in skinny jeans..... :::sigh::::

Spin Schooled

My day did NOT start out very awesome. While I took the day off yesterday, my computer at the office decided to go on strike.

I felt like this all day

Don't get me wrong. I can function without a computer......just not so much when I'm at work and people are expecting me to, ya' know, work... because any work that I do involves the use of a computer. Oh well, I'll take a computer crash over any other type of crash any day of the week. I'll enjoy my solitude until my new "machine" (as everyone in my industry, and my grandmother, refers to computers for some reason) arrives.

Even though it was my Monday and I might as well have worked out of the storage closet all day, I did not have a bad day at all :)

After work I hit up the gym on post for a spin class. (insert dramatic pause)

It's no secret I've been slacking on the fitness and gorging on the foodness the last few months weeks. I can't even remember the last time I went to spin class. Holy mooooooossseecrackers did this lady school me on my spin bike. I wish I could go to her class after work on Friday too, but lucky me I'll be at home sipping wine with some awesome ladies I know (oh darn huh?) Use it or lose it, people. My legs had a case of the wigglies coming out of class...and that's NEVER happened before. I are out of shape. Don't let yourself fall into the same trap! Just get in your training time! 

P.S. Have any of you spinners out there ever heard of Position 4? I learned about it today, and I just LUURRVE position 4!!!!

I came home to a hugh jass salad that the hubs grabbed for me since I have once again failed at grocery shopping and food preparations.

I'm not even going to pretend I wasn't in my pajama pants before dinner. 

I also came home to some results in the mail, FINALLY! I've been waiting to hear if I passed my group ex cert for a long long long time.

The good news is they usually don't mail reject letters in big giant envelopes. I'm official, y'all!

Then I made some peanut butter no bakes to cheer up the hubs :) He had a rough day :( These are not poo, and they are for reals for him, I won't eat any. Scouts honor. 

In the multitude of my anxieties within me,

Your comforts delight my soul.

~Psalm 94:19

Furballs

I took the day off from  my paying job so I could stay home with these two furballs, errr, I mean goofballs :)

The hubs had today off for Veteran's day. Typically I would have had to work, but I'm thankful for PTO! I needed a bonus day of recovery :)

The hubs helped me FINALLY put the trim back up in the bathroom. Yeah...the floor project was started back in September....shame on me for leaving the trim in the garage for two months. 

Then we grabbed lunch and went to Wal-Mart. (Ya know...just livin' the dream.) Seriously though, this is exciting, because the hubs bought me a new vacuum!!!!!!! Having these two furballs inside for the winter has really been driving me nutzzzoo. I feel like the house is NEVER clean.  

dirty rotten furry critters

Gentlemen, if you don't know what to get your gal for Christmas, grab her one of these. And then show her this blog post to prove to her that you're being thoughtful, not insulting. It's a Bissel(R) total Floors somethingorother. (I'm so helpful)

This thing ROCKS!!!!!! It has a crevice cleaner and a pet hair picker-upper attachment and an extra long cord, and features scatter-free cleaning for hard floors! Yippee! We'll have the cleanest home on the block! (See earlier post about my competitive problem)

On an unrelated note, I'm switching over to use the on-post gyms from now on starting tomorrow and I'm freaking out a bit. ~change, different, new, not in my control= freak out~ BUT, my crummy gym membership is expiring and, duh, I have access to like four gyms on post for FREE, in addition to gyms on the Air Force base. One of these gyms has an indoor track (buh-bye, treadmill!) PLUS, rumor has it there's some crossfit areas I can use on post (insert ginormous smile here) free crossfit on my own terms is kind of really exciting!

I fear change.

Did Somebody Say "Competition"

Uh oh. It's about to get all sorts of competitive up in here. One of the blogs I follow, From the Natos (her blog is super awesome and you should check it out),  is doing a competition! She's searching for praise in non-praise and worship music. She has some pretty clever ones listed on her blog post, I highly recommend checking them out to lighten up your Monday. If you know me, you know I'm always up for any sort of competition. So let's get jiggy with it...... oh wait, I mean #letsgetpraisy

These come from one of my favorite songs, especially for running, "Tonight is the Night" by Outasight... (explicitcontentwarning! there is an f-bomb in here, and a whole lotta nakie skin) This song also rocks for car dancing, not that I do that or anything.

"I'm feelin' better than I ever thought was possible but now I know. I'm feelin' better than I ever did. (Impossible don't exist. Impossible don't exist)"   1 Corinthians 2:9-
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Takin' Care of BizNass

Had to take a little business trip today. Nothing major, just a few hours in the car each way.

I love road trips : )

dusk to the east

wind thingies at sunset

sunset to the west. you can almost see the mountains out there!

how you doin'?

look out!!!!! a bear!!!!

And I love coming home to this face

...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain cute dog, the hubs is in some sort of virtual Nascar heaven back there.

This trip taught me a few things:
1) I have control issues like major totally big time. It's a problem.
B)Highway 24 is the longest highway on the planet when all you want to do is just get.home!

...and the best fiesta salad you will ever eat in your entire life can be found in Sterling, Colorado

at TJ Bummer's